The Arts

Art Description

Students use observation and experience to develop artworks which demonstrate a range of skills, techniques and processes. Through the exploration of differing materials and techniques they are able to express their own personal ideas and observations. They study Visual Art practices while communicating their thoughts and ideas through analysis and response to artworks. They will also demonstrate an understanding of artworks from various art movements.

Learning Standards

Explore and Express Ideas

Students explore visual arts practices as inspiration to explore and develop themes, concepts or ideas in artworks. They explore how artists use materials, techniques, technologies and processes to realise their intentions in art works.

Visual Arts Practices

Students experiment with materials, techniques, technologies and processes in a range of art forms to express ideas, concepts and themes in artworks. They develop skills in planning and designing art works and documenting artistic practice.

Present and Perform

Students create and display artworks, describing how ideas are expressed to an audience.

Respond and Interpret

Students analyse how ideas and viewpoints are expressed in art works and how they are viewed by audiences. They identify and connect specific features of visual artworks from different cultures, historical and contemporary times.

Assessment

Visual Diary

Students record the inspiration for their works as well as the development of each project

Folio of Practical Work

Students present their completed artworks including a perspective drawing, linocut print and sculpture piece which demonstrates understanding a selected element or principle of art.

Analysis of Artworks

Students explore and discuss how artists have used Art elements and principles such as colour and texture in the construction of their work. They also investigate how artists have utilised the same approaches that they themselves have used in class to produce their own work, such as perspective. Students present a report comparing the artwork created by two selected artists from different art periods.

Pathways

• Year 9 Art

• Year 9 Photography

• Year 9 Visual Communication Design

Drama Description

In Year 8, Drama students undertake an intensive, intermediate level study of skills and begin to understand how script relates to the actor’s craft. The skills covered include: improvisation, character drawn from the written word, voice and movement. In Year 8 Drama, students build on what they learnt in Year 7. Using experiential methods such as improvisation, activities and Drama games, they explore character, Motivation, Object and Action, and Status all from a working actor’s stand point. Then, they will actively examine vocal work through soundscape and the use of an object as a symbol and through transformation.

By the end of Year 8, students will have further formalised the skills and knowledge learnt in Year 7 by increasing their understanding of storytelling through improvisation and character creation through voice, movement and imagination. They will have a framework for this knowledge through the prism of Elements of Drama. Their knowledge of scriptwriting techniques will be developed with a view to Year 9 Monologue work. General capabilities will be experienced and explored including critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability, intercultural understanding and ethical understanding.

Learning Standards

• Explore and Express Ideas

• Drama Practices

• Present and Perform

• Students learn to tell the stories embedded in scripts through analysis, discussion, invention, negotiation and performance. They use these skills to explore the disciplines of movement and character creation especially as it relates to script.

• Respond and Interpret

• Students examine their own work and investigate the work of theatre practitioners in discussion, research and written responses. They also explore a variety of script types including stage, film and TV, through discussion and performance.

Assessment

• Stagecraft Assignment

• Scripted Performance Assessment

• Scripted Performance Analysis

• Greek Theatre Monologue task

Music

Description

Students develop their instrumental performance skills in learning to play and perform a variety of songs on the drumkit, the keyboard and acoustic guitar. They broaden their musical horizons through the focused listening analysis of a wide survey of music from diverse musical cultures and eras. Students also develop their understanding of music theory and aural skills, and develop confidence in their voice through group singing activities.

Learning Standards

Explore and Express Ideas

Students deliver their creative and expressive response to a film scene through the use of music technology.

Present and Perform

Students deliver in-class performances on each of 1, drum kit 2, electronic keyboard 3, acoustic guitar.

Music Practices

Students decode and apply music notation, perform set pieces and experiment with improvisation and composition.

Respond and Interpret

Students listen and respond in written form to a wide range of music videos of the featured year 8 instruments (drums, keyboard/piano and guitar).

Assessment

• Solo performances on drumkit, keyboard and acoustic guitar

• Music technology film sound design composition

• Aural and theory written tests

English

Description

The Year 8 English course is structured around three language modes: reading and viewing, writing, and speaking and listening.

Reading and Viewing involves students understanding, interpreting, critically analysing, reflecting upon, and enjoying written and visual, print and non-print texts. It encompasses reading and viewing a wide range of texts and media, including literary texts produced by Australian authors, and writers working in other times and contexts. Students also develop the skills to analyse persuasive texts, with a focus on advertising strategies and techniques.

Writing involves students in the active process of conceiving, planning, composing, editing and publishing a range of texts. In Year 8 English, students will develop competence in the writing of analytical text response essays, as well as producing creative works exploring the gothic genre. This mode involves the development of knowledge about strategies for writing and the conventions of Standard Australian English. Students develop a capacity to discuss language conventions and use.

Speaking and Listening refers to the various formal and informal ways oral language is used to convey and receive meaning. It involves the development and demonstration of knowledge about the appropriate oral language for particular audiences and occasions, including body language and voice. Students will have the opportunity to persuade their audience in formal presentations and engage in structured debates around issues raised by the literary texts studied.

Learning Standards

Reading and Viewing

• Understand how the selection of text structures is influenced by the selection of language mode and how this varies for different purposes and audiences.

• Explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used to represent different ideas and issues in texts.

• Interpret texts, questioning the reliability of sources of ideas and information.

• Select evidence from the text to show how events, situations and people can be represented from different viewpoints.

Writing

• Understand how the selection of language features can be used for particular purposes and effects.

• Explain the effectiveness of language choices they use to influence the audience.

• Through combining ideas, images and language features from other texts students show how ideas can be expressed in new ways.

• Create texts for different purposes selecting language to influence audience response.

• When creating and editing texts for specific effects, they take into account intended purposes and the needs and interests of audiences.

• Demonstrate understanding of grammar, select vocabulary for effect and use accurate spelling and punctuation.

Speaking and Listening

• Listen for and identify different emphases in texts, using understanding to elaborate upon discussions.

• Make presentations and contribute to class and group discussions, using language patterns for effect.

Assessment

• Writing of creative, persuasive, informative, analytical, evaluative, and descriptive responses to texts

• Oral and multimodal presentations

• Language and literacy tests

• Individual and group tasks